Oh no, a blog post filled with links instead of fresh new exciting content. Well yes, guilty as charged. But it’s unlikely to become a running trend on scrapbook, I just thought I’d share the sites I tend to visit almost every day, or certainly weekly.

Design/Inspiration

designerstalk, or more commonly DT
A passive aggressive wonderful forum for designers, developers and all manner of other creative folks. It’s one of the few forums of it’s ilk which is genuinely honest online. Some forums are full of people saying it looks lovely regardless of quality, which whilst feeling fuzzy inside, won’t help you much. DT will make you a better designer/developer etc. if you can withstand the very blunt criticism and take suggestions onboard. I frequent the board as Maerk, and generally try to be helpful, though I’m not beyond pointing and laughing at the people who register with the sole intention of asking for designers to work for free. It is primarily for creative folks, so don’t expect a no-swear zone of political correctness talking as if they’re pitching for business.

NOTCOT.org
I’ve mentioned NOTCOT in passing quite a few times on scrapbook, as I do repost various things I find there, it’s a lovely resource for all manner of creative wonderful and weird, not just design related, but interesting photography, weird products, generally very refreshing.

siteInspire – inspiring web design
Not just because a few of my sites have been featured either, but it is a lovely resource – in a world of dozens/hundreds of website collections, it lets you sift through the contents (1,423 sites and counting at this time) by styles, types and themes which is great if you’re looking for specific inspiration, many sites have no real quality control and no way to browse the gallery very easily.

Twitter
Yes, really. Sorry. It is what you make of it, and I’ve turned mine into a pool of designers, authors and comedians, which often gives me information apps and inspiration I wouldn’t have found any other way. (Incidentally I could put Twitter in all of the following sections except comics.)

Useful sites

Lipsum
Which generates Lorem Ipsum, the dummy text used in designs as it lets the eye naturally read the page better than saying DUMMY COPY DUMMY COPY ten thousand times.

Teux Deux
A site which is a very straight forward and effective to-do list by Swiss Miss. Very simple, minimal and useful. I was using post-its on my mac’s dashboard until this(!).

Upload Pie
Ok yes, me and Rick created this, but I do use it on a daily basis as it’s that darn useful, which is why we created it. It’s ace for quickly showing people images that you don’t have to remember to delete later, or take the time to upload using FTP blah blah. Great for getting feedback and fresh eyes on designs, or just sharing pictures of cats… which is honestly the only real reason for the internet.

Comics

dieselsweeties
Observant types will have noticed this link on scrapbook for a long time. It’s a wonderful world of robots romance and pixel art. I even own three t-shirts. (Pixelsaurus, hammer & sickle and Mr. Monocle Moon) It’s lovely.

Questionable Content
Is wonderful. Erm how to describe it… the lives of an odd collection of people, has very surreal moments. Also sentient mobile PCs with disturbing personalities. A yelling swearing bird when Jeph has a day off. Lovely.

Ctrl+Alt+Del
Gaming themed comic surrounding the life of a social incompetent, makes me giggle.

Penny Arcade
Gaming themed comic, very surreal, needs very little describing. I imagine most people will have at least heard of it. Generally surreal comments relating to specific games/game companies, but they do some lovely original arcs unrelated to anything but their own wonderfully warped minds.

xkcd
Sarcasm maths and language. A wonderfully dry comic. Also a fair bit of dinosaur obsession which goes down a treat. Which is handy as I really struggle with a few of the maths gags.

News

BBC News
Whilst I do think the quality has dropped in some areas, I still find myself checking it most frequently for my news needs.

Guardian
Admittedly I mostly find myself reading David Mitchell’s Sunday Observer column and anything by Charlie Brooker, but I do wander elsewhere occasionally.